With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

21st November 2012
11:22 GMT -5

Multiple omnidirectional forms of instantaneous communication squawk out across the Dominion, some aiming for my little team, some for other Dominators and others heading for Oa. From the glow of Jordan's ring, I suspect that he's listening in on some of them.

"Problem?"

"Not yet." His ring dims. "Just thinking… The Dominion have been raiding worlds for longer than the Green Lantern Corps has existed. You're making them look like chumps."

"It's like beating Bat-. Ah, a superhero from Earth Sixteen. A very intelligent man who's very good at developing counters to his enemy's strategies. You hit them and you don't stop hitting them until they're dead. If you leave them alive, you can assume that they'll have a counter to everything that you did the first time around within a depressingly short amount of time."

"What did you say he was called?"

"Batman."

"Ah… Okay."

"Bats used to scare him when he was a boy, so when he wanted to become something criminals would fear, he chose them as his emblem."

"No, no, I mean, objectively, it's no worse than what a lot of people pick. I guess bats are kinda scary." He thinks for a moment. "So you're saying that the Green Lantern Corps should have finished the Dominion off?"

"That… Depends. Green Lanterns have a lot of area to cover and there generally aren't that many of you. I could understand your Corps deciding that it didn't have the manpower, or that other things were more urgent. And… You're primarily a policing organisation."

"But?"

"I read a book a while ago. Set on Earth, there was some sort of environmental disaster which caused an outbreak of huge tsunamis all over the world. A group of… I think it was French naval vessels were assigned to evacuate a group of islands which were going to be destroyed. Problem was, those islands were controlled by criminal gangs whose main sources of income were narcotic production and paedophile sex tourism. The rest of the population were their hostages. The French didn't have the resources to carry out a rescue mission. So, the commanding Admiral tells his subordinates that he's taking full responsibility, and orders the marines to shoot through the hostages. In the first ten minutes a lot of innocent people die, then the gangs realise that killing people isn't working and is ensuring that the French don't take them alive. So they drop their weapons and surrender, allowing the island to be safely evacuated. The total deaths were far fewer than there would have been if he'd ordered a series of rescue missions or just abandoned the place."

"So… What, we should just abandon Sectors so we've got the manpower to destroy things like the Dominion?"

"I'd need to know more about your Corps' deployments before I gave a firm answer. I'd probably argue for encouraging Sectors to build up their security fleets and establishing mutual defence pacts rather than just disappearing with no warning, but… Yes."

Heh.

"Another example for you. The last wolf in England was killed in Thirteen Ninety. Not because of the destruction of habitat, no. The people hunted them down and killed them with malice aforethought, because they realised that big pack predators were a threat to people and their farm animals. About thirty years later a giant pack of man eating wolves laid siege to Paris for three years, before invading the city and doing battle with the city guard, killing at least forty of them. A hundred years ago, during World War One, German and Russian soldiers had a truce so they could fight off the giant packs of man eating wolves that were attacking them."

"You know where doesn't have problems with packs of man eating wolves?"

He nods. "England."

"For now. We're reintroducing them. But the general rule is, deal with small problems early or they can grow. Deal with big problems hard or they'll ruin everything else. When we arrived on this parallel's Earth, Interceptor and two Amazos were right there in less than a minute. On our Earth something like that might not even get noticed. And that's after we had to deal with a time travelling invasion fleet."

"I guess-."

Behind us, Alan breathes a sigh of relief, the construct over his ring showing a orbital plot.

"Problem?"

"Oh, no." He dismisses the construct. "I was just checking what happened to that rock I threw at the planet in our first fight. They managed to redirect it. I was a little worried I might have to go back."

"And what I just said is something Alan would never say, and that's one of the reasons why I like him so much."

"Ah, thanks." Alan looks towards our next target. "Are they clustering up, or..?"

"Yes. Combined fleets in position to reinforce worlds we attack, with weak picket fleets around their worlds because they don't think we're going to perform ground strikes. A rational and pragmatic response which would cost them if any of their neighbours had the resolve to punish them for it."

I make eye contact with Jordan.

"Jordan."

"I'll talk to the local Lanterns when we're done here."

I nod. "Alan, you can make a zeta tube construct, right?"

"Yeah."

"That's probably an easier way to get everyone into position than picking them up and carrying them. I think…"

I create a construct of the local systems… Yes, a rocky planetoid in an uncolonised system in Dominion space.

"Here?"

Alan considers the image for a moment, then nods. "Looks like it'll do. And we can attack wherever the Dominators have been keeping people in the same way."

"Guess I'd better actually find them then."

But that's simple enough. Finding a Dominator who is interested in humans is impractical. Finding the desire sets normal to humans on the other hand is well within my abilities. Dominators -even Dominator civilians- just don't think in the same way as humans. If by some miracle the Dominion hasn't killed the majority of test subjects by now then I'll-.

There.

"Found them. Feels like a few hundred." I point to a planet on the construct map. "Well worth rescuing. There might be more somewhere else, but I'm hopeful that we can interrogate the staff or their database for more information."

"A few.. hundred?" Jordan's face falls. "But they took-."

"They didn't reach fourth place on my poop list by being nice people. I'll head back and set up the zeta transmitter on Earth. Signal me when you're ready."

 

16th October 2013
After Receiving The Bad News

"W-?" The human's confidence evaporates at Ratchet's sombre words. "Is there any way to get him out of the Well of All Sparks?"

"If there was, we would have already carried it out. Optimus transferred all of the sparks contained in the Allspark into the Matrix of Leadership in order to protect them from Unicron. Then he-." Ratchet blinks, his optics momentarily unfocusing. "The only way to return the sparks of every Cybertronian who had ever lived was to enter the Well physically."

Arcee glares at him, though not with quite as much passion as she usually summoned up.

"Why do you even care?"

"Quite aside from the fact that Optimus Prime was a good guy and his death leaves a huge leadership vacuum… I just managed to talk Shockwave into standing down."

Wheeljack -who'd rather been ignoring the new arrival once he realised it was someone he wasn't supposed to blow up- suddenly perks up.

"You found Shocker? Let me just go get my-."

"Into standing down, after I convinced him that the only reason he's been fighting this long is because of the mnemosurgery inflicted on him by the Autobot High Council."

Arcee makes a dismissive gesture with her right hand. "You are so full of sludge. No Autobot would-."

Ultra Magnus and Ratchet look slightly awkward.

"Would-." Arcee picks up on their discomfiture. "Ratchet?"

Ratchet inclines his head and takes a deep breath. "Though that sort of treatment wasn't something that Optimus would ever have sanctioned, his predecessor Sentinel Zeta Prime had… A very different attitude."

The human raises his eyebrows. "He organised the caste system which resulted in the enslavement of the majority of your species. He cut off peoples' hands and faces and rearranged their brains for peacefully disagreeing with him. He -more than anyone- was responsible for the war, and, yeah, I see the vehicons you've got around the place-"

One of the vehicons manning a console at the back of the room tries to look like it's not there.

"-but if you want to convince the majority of Decepticons to accept an armistice then you need to stop pretending that there was no fault on the Autobot side at the start of the war."

"If Shockwave wishes to speak with Optimus Prime, that isn't possible. If he wishes to participate in rebuilding Cybertron then we would… Accept him."

"… Okay, good, I assumed that you'd be willing to do that, but he'd also like to reverse the mnemosurgery so he can go back to being the good person he was before the war."

Arcee looks surprised. "Shockwave wants mnemosurgery?"

"He wants his original personality restored to how it was before Sentinel Prime made him what he is today. I thought that-. Since no one still functional knows mnemosurgery, the only thing I could think of that could restore him was… Well, Primus. And since Primus doesn't consciously interact with the physical universe all that much, I was hoping that Optimus Prime could sort something out."

Ratchet nods thoughtfully, his right hand rubbing his chin. "Before the war, Shockwave was an advocate of peaceful reform. And it would be a powerful sign to the surviving Decepticons that we were being truthful about our desire for peace if he was seen working with us."

Ultra Magnus nods. "But we can't do it. Prime's dead, and he took the Matrix of Leadership with him."

"Is there..?" The human looks up at the ceiling, perhaps looking for guidance in the stars. "Is there some way to make a new one? Or otherwise resurrect a dead Cybertronian?"

Ratchet shakes his head. "The first recorded bearer of the Matrix of Leadership is Prima Prime, the first being created by Primus. It may well be that it was created by Primus." He thinks for a moment. "We could.. disarm Shockwave and escort him to the Well of All Sparks. Primus might decide to restore him to his former self."

"None of the original thirteen had any sort of supernatural healing abilities? Or.. any of their artefacts? I know you didn't finish going through your list of relics hidden on Earth."

Ultra Magnus pulls out his hammer, considers it and then looks at Ratchet. "Can we use energon to restore power to the Forge of Solus Prime?"

"The Forge of Solus Prime doesn't run on energon. One of the few things we know about it is that it uses a miniature neutron star as its power source. And we have no idea how to replace it." Ratchet starts pacing. "It might be possible to power it using energon instead, but I also have no idea where to even begin with something like that. The fact of the matter is that many of the relics of the Thirteen are so advanced that they might as well be magic."

The human lowers his gaze to Ratchet, not looking particularly hopeful. "Do any transformers know magic?"

"No. Magic isn't real. There are just technologies too advanced for us to understand."

"Okay. Are there transformers who can reliably use technology you don't understand?"

Ratchet shakes his head again, continuing to pace. "If there are, they could be anywhere in the universe. I can think of only two places where there might be any records we could use, and both of them are out of our reach."

"And those are?"

"The first is Quintessa." The other Autobots wince. "The Quintessons had access to the Matrix of Leadership for hundreds of vorns. I find it unlikely that they wouldn't have studied it, if only to work out how to more effectively maintain their control."

The human shakes his head. "I don't think you're ready for Great War Two."

"I agree. The second is Vector Sigma. It is a database of incalculable value. Unfortunately, during our last attempt to access it, scraplets got in and ate part of the access console."

"Okay, but the database itself should still be there, right? If it's just a matter of repairing the damage I've got Shockwave to work with."

"There is also the matter of accessing it. Only a Prime or someone given access by a Prime can get in. And then whoever was accessing it would have to study the records while avoiding the attention of the surviving scraplets."

"Oh, no, that's easy." Ratchet looks unconvinced. "Just get some human scale glass gas sprayers and send human soldiers in to clear the place out." Ratchet's face falls slightly slack in astonishment. "Scraplets just ignore humans and glass gas only affects metal, so they wouldn't be in any danger."

"That… Is… True…"

"Honestly, using humans to clear this entire planet of scraplets isn't a terrible idea."

"Hey." Bulkhead focuses on the human. "Are you touting for work?"

"I could put together a group of dependable men with military experience willing to work away from home, if the money's right. Or you could just talk to Agent Fowler."

Ratchet nods. "That may well work. Even if it provides no useful information on restoring either Optimus Prime or Shockwave, having access to Vector Sigma's archives would allow us to regain untold amounts of lost information. But we still can't access it.. without…"

He exchanges a look with Arcee, while the human just frowns.

"Without what?"

Arcee shakes her head. "Without 'who'."

17th October 2013
17:13 GMT -7

Jackson Darby nervously regards the Decepticon-affiliated mercenary named Paul.

"I don't think I'm supposed to talk to you."

He turns and glances over his shoulder, to where a holomatter avatar on a bike waves an awkward greeting.

"That would depend on whether you ever want to see Arcee again."